The 2022-23 edition of the German Bundesliga kicked off on October 22 last year and is set to finish on April 30. All 16 teams have played at least four rounds, but 10 of them have brought forward their round-7 matches. Three squads won all their confrontations: SG Solingen, OSG Baden-Baden and SC Viernheim. The next three rounds are scheduled for February 2-4.
The Ukrainian Championships took place in Kharkiv on 8-17 December 2021. The tournaments were nicely organized in the library of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. Andrei Volokitin clinched first place in the open section by winning both his games in the two final rounds, while Kateryna Dolzhykova surprisingly got the gold in the women’s tournament. | Photos: Ukrainian Chess Federation
Thanks to a final-round victory over Armenia, Ukraine got their first gold medals at the open section of the European Team Championships. France came second after beating Azerbaijan, with Alireza Firouzja beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to climb to second place in the world ranking and become the youngest ever player to cross the 2800-rating barrier. Poland finished in third place. | Photos: ECU Press
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MVL only goes through in Armageddon
After three rounds, no fewer than 6 out of the 10 top seeds have been knocked out in the open section of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Although it should be noted that Levon Aronian left the competition due to health issues and was not eliminated by a lower-rated opponent, it is still surprising to see so many of the top stars out of contention this early in the tournament.
Moreover, had Maxime Vachier-Lagrave not won his Armageddon game against David Paravyan on Tuesday, we would only have 3 players from the top 10 still going. MVL’s colleagues Anish Giri (6th seed) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (4th seed) did not make it through in the rapid and blitz tiebreakers of round 3.